The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
Yay, we're safer! Oh, wait. No, we're not. We're just setting a dangerous precedent and opening a sort of Pandora's box, the contents of which remain to be seen.
When I was in the Philippines earlier this year, there was a heavy military presence. Going into pretty much any significant building involved getting my backpack searched and/or a metal detector pass-thru. I wouldn't have been surprised at all by finding a curfew had been established. I realize, of course, that they were having serious problems in the south part of the islands with some terrorist incidents, and had had a couple in Manilla as well, (where I was at the time) but I couldn't help feeling a little creeped out. Though a nominally free country, it felt much more like a junta under the early stages of martial law.
Now it would seem that our wonderful, useless, incompetent, apparently eternal congress wishes to strike out boldly in the same direction. Perhaps they'll change that awkward "Department of Homeland Security" moniker to a serene and simple "Ministry of Peace". Or even further, to a vaguely techy and soundbyteable "Minipax".
How will this play out? Well, once you grasp the idea that a crisis the gravity of which a newly-armed homeland security can declare through state-allied media companies is a valid excuse for infusing society with armed troops (while simultaneously pushing for more gun control), you will have a good idea of what's to come.
May it never be, but it's sure looking that way.
-()4|<.
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